Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our text for this morning comes from 1 Samuel chapter 27, beginning at verse 1, reading through the whole of the chapter and into chapter 28, the first two verses. If you're using one of the Bibles supplied under the seat in front of you, you'll find that beginning on page 223, 1 Samuel 27 1 through chapter 28 verse 2. The title for today's sermon is The Right Man. I wonder a little bit, I'm not going to ask you to answer, if you say that that does bring something to mind, but I'm just a bit curious if the title, The Right Man, brings some context to mind. Is that a phrase that brings more immediately to mind in terms of where that phrase might have been pulled from? Just a show of hands if you immediately think of something when you hear the phrase. One, okay. For me, I think it did, although, of course, I worked it in reverse. The title is a reference to Luther's rendition of the 46th Psalm, the hymn that goes by the title, A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Who is the right man? Is it David? Is he the Lord's king who will rule and defend? conquering the enemies of God and of his people. Of course, there is some truth in that, that David is the man after God's own heart, that is, the one whom God has elected rather than the people who selected Saul for themselves. David is the best picture that we have prior to the advent of Christ, of what it means for Christ to be king. But then it is also true that David is not the right man. Luther wrote, did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing. We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he. Lord Sabaoth, his name, from age to age the same, and he must win the battle. So we look at David and see Christ this morning. Before we read this chapter, let's go to the God who gives it to us in prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word to us, this word about which our Lord told the religious leaders of his day that they searched it, thinking that in them they had eternal life, and implying to them that they were right in that estimation, that by the scriptures they had eternal life, but also told them, implied it to them, that they had misread it, so that it contains eternal life, but that they had missed it, because they had missed him in it. Lord, we would not miss the profit that you hold forth to us by this chapter of your word. Open our eyes that we might see wonderful things in your law. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 1 Samuel 27, beginning at the first verse. And David said in his heart, Now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines. And Saul will despair of me to seek me anymore in any part of Israel. So I shall escape out of his hand. Then David arose and went over with the 600 men who were with him to Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath. So David dwelt with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each man with his household, and David with his two wives, Ahinoam, the Jezreelites, and Abigail, the Carmelites, Nabal's widow. And it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath, so he sought him no more. Then David said to Achish, if I have now found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in some town in the country that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you? So Achish gave him Ziklag that day. Therefore, Ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. Now the time that David dwelt in the country of the Philistines was one full year and four months. And David and his men went up and raided the Geshurites, the Gerzites, and the Amalekites. For those nations were the inhabitants of the land from of old as you go to shore, even as far as the land of Egypt. Whenever David attacked the land, he left neither man nor woman alive. but took away the sheep, the oxen, the donkeys, the camels, and the apparel, and returned and came to Arkeesh. Then Arkeesh would say, where have you made a raid today? And David would say, against the southern area of Judah, or against the southern area of the Jarhameelites, or against the southern area of the Canites. David would save neither man nor woman alive to bring news to Gath, saying, lest they should inform on us, saying thus David did. And thus was his behavior all the time he dwelt in the country of the Philistines. So Achish believed in David, saying, he has made his people Israel utterly abhor him. Therefore, he will be my servant forever. Now it happened in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for war to fight with Israel. And Achish said to David, you assuredly know that you will go out with me to battle you and your men. So David said to Achish, surely you know what your servant can do. And Achish said to David, therefore I will make you one of my chief guardians forever. Thus far, the reading of God's holy, inerrant, and life-giving word. May he add his blessing to the reading and the preaching of it. We can understand David in this passage, I think. This is a passage where we see the humanity of David. We understand that he's a real character in history. He's not a character in a fable. or a fairy tale, but he was a real man who lived in real space and time and experienced real difficulties and pressures. We find him in a very real predicament. He has been on the run for his life from Saul for we know not how long, but it has been a significant period of time. And there is nowhere that is safe for him, not really, and certainly not long term. And as time has gone on, those gathered to him, being disaffected with Saul's rule or perhaps persecuted for one reason or another by the irrational and murderous king, have found their way to David as their only refuge. And so the band has grown to be 600 strong, and now we find it is not only the men living in caves and elsewhere in the wilderness, but their whole households are with them. This is a group of maybe 2,000 people. How do you find a safe place to hide when you're 2,000 people? How do you find food to eat? And it's not just the men who can scrounge and hunt for themselves, but they have their families to take care of. So David feels both the very real pressures of Saul is ever hunting for him and he's just never going to stop. Right? And Saul can afford to fail dozens of times, scores of times, hundreds of times. He only has to succeed once and David will perish. He feels that pressure and he feels the responsibility of caring. for all of those who are following him and for their families as well. Perhaps this difficulty of finding a place to be accounts for the apparent foolishness of returning to Ziph. He'd been there once before. And what did the Ziphites do? They saw an opportunity to gain favor with Saul. They immediately sent messengers to Saul to say, is not David hiding in our land? Come and we'll show you exactly where he's hiding out. Why would David go back there? Perhaps because there are few places he can go that can accommodate such a large group. We understand, don't we, the real difficulty of exercising wisdom under difficult circumstances. In the previous chapter, which is also, by the way, where we see him returning to Ziph. That's in the first verse of chapter 26. I'm referring to there as his second sojourn in Ziph. But in 26 verse 19, we see clearly that David feels the shame and injury of being forced, as it were, to depart from the promised land. He says there, if the children of men, he's speaking to Saul, If they have stirred you up against me, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day from sharing in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, go serve other gods." David is sensible of The shame and difficulty of both being forced out of the land of promise, but also that this inherently means he's being asked in some way to serve other gods beside YHWH. He feels that, he does. Not to think he leaves for Philistia with a light heart or that he does that easily, but on the other hand, he is responsible to preserve and provide for all of these families that follow him. David's real necessity, his deepest need, of course, as it is for each of us, is dependence upon God, which is strangely absent from this chapter. Reminds one of the book of Ruth that we hear about, where God is not mentioned. And in that book, perhaps you've heard, he's not explicitly mentioned, but he's everywhere. His sovereignty is evidenced in the amazing coincidences of the book of Ruth. But here in this chapter, we again find God strangely absent. There's no mention of him, no record of David's consultation of him. There's no explicit mention of God's help. I think because we are meant to see that David fails here to depend upon God, to seek God, to lean upon his help. We are meant to see here that David points us to his greater son, points us to Christ, not only when he succeeds in being similar to Christ, but also by his failure by which David shows us he is not the one who will fulfill all of the promises. David here is leaving the land. He crosses over. As we're told, oh, where is that? It's here. Crosses over as though he crosses a line here. It doesn't just say that he escapes to Philistia or that he goes to Philistia. Not finding it. It's OK. Somebody's got it. It's in verse two. Yes, went over. There it is. I was looking too late. David arose and went over, crossed over into Philistia. We don't have to guess about why he does that. We have his rationale there in verse one and verse two. We can see clearly that David understands Saul will never quit. That's true. We can agree with David about that. Saul has given every evidence of false repentance and then returning again to his obsession with the life of David. Look at what David says to his own heart. It's how the chapter opens. David said in his heart, now I shall perish someday by the hand of Saul. That is a lie. And David has reason to know it. He knows himself to be the anointed successor of Saul. He's heard from Saul's own lips that Saul knows that. But the pressures that surround him have caused him not only to believe the lie, but to become the perpetrator of the lie to his own heart. This is what he tells himself when he looks in the mirror. You know what's gonna happen to you, don't you? Sooner or later, Saul is going to find you, and on that day, you will die. He tells himself, there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape to the land of the Philistines. That is a lie. The man after God's own heart, chosen to ascend to the throne of Israel, sees nothing better than that he should escape out of the promised land and into the land of the enemies of God? That's the best you can do? But David believes it in part because that is what he is telling himself. I heard once, I am pretty sure I heard it from one famous in the biblical counseling movement, one who is easily represented by almost a comic depiction of trendy eyeglasses and a humongous mustache. He said, no one talks to you as much as you do. Therefore, no one has as much influence over you as you do. Even if you're here week in and week out every single Lord's Day, and I preach longer than some, I still talk to you like 45 minutes a week. It's almost nothing compared to how much time you spend talking to you, telling yourself how to view the current circumstances you find yourself in. And we get a window into David's soul. We see what he is saying to his heart. He's lying to himself. Contrast that with what the sons of Korah would tell us to say to ourselves. We had it as part of our call to worship. Psalm 42 is a psalm of the sons of Korah. Verse five. Why are you cast down, oh my soul? You see, here again is self-speech. This is how I am talking to myself. I see myself in depression. And what do I say to myself? Today is a good day for a pity party. Go down to Party Central and see what kind of streamers they have for pity parties because I deserve one if anybody ever has. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. And that's what you say to your soul. But David instead has been lying to his soul and so he goes to Gath. Again. That worked out so well the last time. Like, not only does he go to the same, you know, Philistia, he goes to the same city where he's been before, where he only escaped with his life by pretending to be insane, and God graciously ordered that a key should be annoyed with him and send him away, rather than have him put to death. Now, the circumstances are admittedly different. Time has passed. The first time he went to Gath, David was famous because he was the subject of a great pop song in Israel, and the Philistines had heard it. Saul has slain his hundreds, and David has slain his thousands, or it was thousands and tens of thousands. And the Philistines have heard this, and they bring this song to the attention of Akish. And who were those thousands and tens of thousands? They were mostly Philistines. Remember, David had on his person, on that occasion, the sword that had belonged to Goliath, with which he had beheaded Goliath, who was from Gath. But things are different now. Now David is equally famous, but now he is famous as a fugitive from Saul. Furthermore, David arrives with a band of men who, if they were ragtag when they came to him, no doubt have been hardened by time in the wilderness. They have gained skills, at least through the necessity of hunting, if not through actual battles with David. David is the most accomplished of Israel's military leaders prior to his having to go on the run. Doubtless, he has trained these men. And so on this occasion, David arrives in Gath with a formidable force of mercenaries in tow. But of course, that means something more. If Akish is to see this not as a threat, but as an asset, then there can be no doubt that the king of Gath would swear David to fealty. The text does not say it, and so it is speculation, but it seems safe to assume that David must have sworn fealty to this foreign king, the enemy of God. and he enters into a new phase in his life, leaving a phase of life characterized by running and hiding in favor for a new life characterized by deceit and the anxiety ever present of having to keep up the lie. And in this circumstance, God is gracious to him. Isn't that astonishing? God doesn't say, I reject you now as I have rejected Saul. God continues to treat him favorably. We see it in a variety of ways. God preserves and even prospers David in the course of this new life that he's fashioned for himself. First of all, the reason he's done this thing is successful. We're told in verse four that Saul was told that David had fled to Gath, so he sought him no more. Success. It's exactly what David was looking for. Rest from Saul's persecution, he gets it. God did not have to so order things, but he did. Things did not go well for David the first time that he fled to Gath. They might not have gone well this time either, but they do. David is well-received on this occasion. In verse 5, we're told that after some time, apparently, of having lived in the capital there, he's living in Gath with Achish. He is presumably some burden upon the table of the king, he and his 600 men and their household. He comes to Achish in verse 5 and says, if I have now found favor or grace in your eyes. Now, that is not the sort of question that you come to a king with unless you are fairly certain that you have, in fact, found favor in his eyes. So you say, if I have found grace in your eyes, but what you mean is since I have found grace in your eyes. He's asking for something Pretty significant. Give me a place to live. Give me a town. One wonders what happened to all the people that were already living in that town. Text doesn't say. They don't matter. I don't know. But Ziklag is given into David's hands. This becomes his town. And he and his men live there. And from Ziklag, David raids Israel's enemies. Now, they also happen to be Philistia's enemies, so he does not break his oath of fealty. to the king of Gath. He is going out and raiding Philistia's enemies, but they're also Israel's enemies. And then God prospers him. The text specifically tells us that while he puts to death all of the people, he keeps the flocks and the herds and the other wealth so that he and his men, some of them have perhaps never known so good a life in terms of earthly security and wealth. They have their own town to live in. and they are growing wealthy as they raid these enemies of Israel. Speaking of Ziklag, it appears in the list in Joshua chapter 15 of those cities that were awarded to the tribe of Judah as their inheritance. Ziklag is supposed to belong to Judah, the tribe of which David is a member. so that we see another grace of God to David in this time, namely that God is achieving his purposes through David, even through David's weakness and sin. It was a weak faltering of faith that caused David to be living in Ziklag, and yet it is also the means by which God delivered to the tribe of Judah that city he had promised to them. Further, the people that David is raiding and exterminating, they were among those people whom God put under the ban, that is, told to slaughter man, woman, and child, because they deserved it, and that they might not serve as a snare to his people in the land. God had specifically said, do not let them live, because if you do, they will continue to serve their gods, and they will tempt you to serve their gods. They are supposed to be put to death. We only have to wonder, the text doesn't say, was David conscious of this? Is he conscious of the fact that God is using him as his instrument to execute the ban that he had commanded to Moses and Joshua? Or is David just being ruthless in protecting his lie? We know that's true, that's what the text says. Can't afford to let anybody get back to Akish and say, David raided us. Oh, and who are you? Well, we're not Israelites. In either case, God is making use of David as his instrument. I think it's fairly common for people, Christians, to think that if a thing goes well, if God seems to grant success, to or through a certain means that that is God's approbation on the thing. It must be that God approves of this, that, or the other thing because look at how he's using it. Look at how many have come to Christ. Look at how this church has grown. Look at how successful that missionary project has been. Look at how much money has been raised. But this just shows us the extreme difficulty of reading Providence. The things that happen could mean different things. Perhaps it is God's approbation on that thing. But perhaps it is God being gracious to his people despite their failure, as he is to David here. Or perhaps it is even worse. Perhaps it is the judgment of God. For one of the ways that we see God treating sinners is to turn them over to their sin. And one of the ways that he can do that is to make them happy and satisfied and successful in their sin. If we pursue our happiness by sinful means, and the Lord's providence allows us to be self-satisfied there, how shall we be called to repentance? How shall the gospel ever appear as good news to us? And so that success that we can look to as the approbation of God can actually represent the condemnation of God, the exact opposite of what we think it is. His way of keeping us fat and satisfied in our sin because he desires to kill us. So fair warning, if you ask me to pray for your errant adult children, one of the ways I tend to pray for such persons is that God would make them miserable. that wherever they seek their fulfillment, their happiness, their joy, they would find a dead end, they would find only emptiness, that they would sour on the pleasures of this world, that the hound of heaven would pursue them. So if you don't want me praying for your kids that way, don't ask me to pray for your errant children. Just leave them fat and happy in their sins. So David here is not the king we're looking for. When Obi-Wan Kenobi waves his hand and says to the stormtroopers, these are not the droids you're looking for. He is using a Jedi mind trick to convince them of the truth of a lie. But not so here. This is just the plain truth. This is not the king we're looking for. David just does not perfectly line up with the one that we need. He's not the one who can rule with perfect justice. He's not the one who can protect his people, defeating all his and our enemies. The grace of God to us is his people even to David in this circumstance, is a grace that comes in and because of Christ. Christ is the king in whom the grace of God is perfectly expressed. God proved gracious to David despite his failures. But Christ has earned every spiritual blessing for his people. Paul wrote to the Ephesians saying this. Again, we had this earlier in the worship service. In our assurance of pardon, Ephesians one, verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Christ, unlike David, is the one who did not fail and so has earned for us every blessing that is good for us. Brings up a question for some people. In fact, an objection to reformed theology on this ground. It's specifically an objection to our insistence on the imputation of the active obedience of Christ to the believer. There's a mouthful for you. The imputation means the crediting to our account. Treating us as though it were ours, even though we didn't do it. That's the imputation of what? Giving to us of what? The credit for the obedience of Christ. And over the centuries, many have objected to that. Saying that if Christ not only takes our guilt away, but also gives us his credit, well then, here's one of the criticisms. There's no place for grace. If God now saves us and if he gives us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, that's just because in strict justice, he owes it to us. Because Christ bought it for us. And the answer is yes, that's right. Kind of. The last part is right. The first part is wrong, that there's no place for grace. The place for grace is elsewhere in the system. God was under no obligation to enter into the covenant of grace. He was under no obligation to send his son, nor under any obligation to elect you or me to incorporation in the son. That's where we find his grace, his astonishing favor to we who deserve his wrath and curse. Once his grace is to us in these ways so that we are incorporated into Christ and Christ has earned for us every spiritual blessing that is in the heavenly places, then you are exactly right. The justice of God has become not our enemy, but our friend. Because Christ, who is our mediator, pleads on the basis of his merits for us. He says, Father, remember how you wanted me to go buy everything for them? I did. And now you get to give it to them. And he rejoices to do so. This is Christ, our King, the right man, who is on our side. So hear this exhortation. Never lose sight, as David did, of God's grace that is to us in Christ Jesus. Never lose sight of God's grace that is to us in Christ Jesus. Paul told the Corinthians in his second epistle to them or third, depending on how you're counting. We know of one prior. we don't have in the scriptures. In 2 Corinthians, he writes to them concerning his thorn in the flesh and how he prayed that the Lord would remove this thorn in the flesh. And after he prayed three times, the Lord says to him, 2 Corinthians 12, 9, and 10, he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. And Paul says, therefore, most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. David looked around and he knew himself to be weak. But he failed to see the grace of God to him. So then what should our weakness be? Should it be the weakness of David who falters and sins? Paul foresaw that problem. Romans 6, 15, what then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not. Our weakness instead must be the weakness of dependence. Looking not to ourselves, to our own understanding, but rather to Christ. It's not the weakness of David, which was a failure to look to God, depending on his grace. Therefore, he looked to his own estimation and his own wisdom, his own plan. Instead, it's the weakness of dependence, looking to his grace. It's the exact opposite of what David did. This will mean following Tripp's advice of being careful what we say to ourselves, or if you prefer, following the advice of the children's song. Oh, be careful, little ears, what you hear. Are we careful about what our eyes and ears bring into our souls, by which we learn how to view the circumstances around us? It will mean following Jack Miller's practice of preaching the gospel to ourselves every day. It will mean availing ourselves of the use of the ordinary means of grace. If we are to never lose sight of God's grace to us that is in Christ Jesus, and we know that the minister only gets 45 minutes a week, then we need to be here. Not just for the 45 minutes of the word preached, but also for the sacraments and also for the word that we minister to one another in fellowship in the word as we sing the psalms and the hymns. It is in being in prayer together that we expect, not out of presumption, but out of belief in the promises of God that he will be gracious to us by these means. But we must avail ourselves of the use of these means. it will mean seeking the gift of repentance. If we believe our theology, we know that repentance comes not from ourselves, that's not something we can summon. Our bootstraps are just not sufficient for that. to make ourselves repentant. And so we will be dependent here also and come to the Lord in prayer and ask for the gift of repentance. Because we know that our dependence upon his grace will never be what it should be in this life. It will never be a perfect dependence. And so even, right, we have a confession of sin that says, I need to repent of my repentance. My repentance is never what it should be. So we're always depending on God at every turn for every facet of how we live before him. We must ever be repenting and need that gift of repentance in order to do it, to turn away from false saviors and back to Christ, our strong tower and conquering king. Luther wrote third and fourth stanzas of his hymn, And though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear. For God hath willed his truth to triumph through us. The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him. His rage we can endure. It's not a cakewalk. The life of the Christian is not for the faint of heart. It's for those who are weak, and in our weakness turn to his strength, and in that are strong. His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure. One little word shall fell him. That word. Above all earthly powers, no thanks to them abideth. The spirit and the gifts are ours through him who with us sideth. Let goods and kindred go. This mortal life also. The body they may kill. God's truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever. I always remember that this hymn is taken from the 46th Psalm because of a story that I heard in the midst of all of his troubles and pressures and persecutions. Martin Luther, when he felt most the burden of them, when he felt most afraid, when it seemed to him as it seemed to David that surely one day the Pope shall find me and I shall perish, would say to his friend, his protege, his successor, Philip Melanchthon, come, Philip. Let us sing the 46th, because that is how he would preach the gospel to his soul. Amen. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace to poor wretches such as we are. We are weak, and if you leave us to ourselves, we shall ever fail. We thank you that you never leave us to ourselves, but are ever with us to lead and guide us. Yea, though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, even then we will fear no evil, for you are with us. Your rod and your staff, they comfort us. Surely we shall dwell with your blessing in your house forever. Remind us of this. as we weary of our pilgrimage in this sin-troubled world. We pray it in Christ's name.